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Sun and clouds mixed. High near 85F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 62F. Winds light and variable.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

Along with the food and drink menu, the cafe also offers a wide variety of “witchy” wares in a small retail section.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

The walls and several tables in the cafe are adorned with various pieces of wizarding paraphernalia, clothing, tapestries and art from the series.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

Stephanie Thigpen, co-owner of the Muggle Café, is right at home surrounded by the café decor.

The Muggle Café is draped in items like these scarves, which represent the four houses into which students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are divided.

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Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

Along with the food and drink menu, the cafe also offers a wide variety of “witchy” wares in a small retail section.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

The walls and several tables in the cafe are adorned with various pieces of wizarding paraphernalia, clothing, tapestries and art from the series.

Stephanie Thigpen, left, and Nick McKnight detail the work that went into the Muggle Café, a Harry Potter-themed café and lounge set to open in downtown Brunswick in December.

Stephanie Thigpen, co-owner of the Muggle Café, is right at home surrounded by the café decor.

The Muggle Café is draped in items like these scarves, which represent the four houses into which students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are divided.

Despite the name, the Muggle Café in downtown Brunswick will be welcoming to everyone, whether they boast magical ability or not, when it opens around Christmas.

“’Muggle’ basically means an outsider, and I think that’s cool because this is a place for people who don’t fit inside any other box,” said Nick McKnight, who co-owns the soon-to-be-opened Muggle Café with Stephanie Thigpen.

One might glean it from the name, but saying the décor in the establishment at 1447 Grant St. is inspired by the Harry Potter franchise would be an understatement. The term “muggle” itself is used in the series to denote non-magical folk.

The café is adorned with replicas of various pieces of wizarding paraphernalia, clothing, tapestries and art from the series. Adding a little to the aesthetic is a series of pipes, gauges and valves, which, even if they could have been removed, lend a lot to the hidden, underground atmosphere. It’s likely they could not be removed anyway, McKnight said. He speculated they were part of the historic building’s fire suppression system.

The two owners decided to join forces, throwing their talents and personalities into cauldron to whip up a perfect potion.

“She was the one responsible for the kitchen and menu. I was the one with the crazy Harry Potter collection,” McKnight said.

Thigpen was familiar with what it takes to run a café from a past job, but the menu and atmosphere are geared toward a different, less traditional audience, she said.

“The menu is mostly light sandwiches and bubble tea,” she said.

“Bubble tea, bubble tea, bubble tea,” McKnight added, driving home what they hope will be one of the defining aspects of the shop, along with its unique-for-the-Golden-Isles décor.

“And bubble waffles,” Thigpen chimed in.

At the most reductive, bubble tea is milk tea with tapioca pearls, the “bubbles,” floating in it. It can get much more complicated quickly however, should one want to include coffee or other drinks, additives like jelly cubes or red beans or pick a different type of pearl, one made of different food or filled with fruit juice. The result is a concoction that could easily be found in Diagon Alley.

“I’ve missed them since I moved back from New York,” said McKnight, a native of Florida who also lived in New England for a lot of his early life.

“That’s one of the things he kept asking me about when we met,” Thigpen said. “’Where do you get bubble tea here?’”

Getting the room in shape to decorate it was by itself a challenge, McKnight said. The now-wood panel floor was once a tacky adhesive vinyl, the walls needed a lot of work before painting could even start and — as the co-owners quickly discovered — installing a kitchen took a lot more work than setting up the neighboring tattoo parlor, Black Lotus, which McKnight and his wife, Kaitlyn, own. It has seen substantial growth, he said. Soon to be adding two new tattoo artists, the full roster of six is about all the current location can accommodate.

Along with the tattoo shop, the café’s location in Brunswick’s historic urban core is a substantial selling point as well, Thigpen said. The main entrance is through a set of heavy wooden double doors opening into Grant Street, a smaller side street in the city that the building shares with the Brunswick Glynn County Library.

Brunswick has for a long time lacked variety when it comes to “nerdy” hangouts, he said, and in late mid- to late-December the doors will open to those who “solemnly swear that they’re up to no good.”

Both are into different things, whether it’s traditional board games, the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game or trading card games. The café will always have some cards and board games on hand, McKnight said, but patrons are welcome to bring their own games or just find a nook in which to read a book.

The décor is something special to him as well.

“I started reading Harry Potter when I was as old as him, 10 or 11. I grew up with him,” McKnight said. “It’s a great story, it’s this adventure and this ride-or-die friendship that’s just something I love.”

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